Books by Joan Hammersmith

The Raw, Bold Truth: The Memoirs of Johnny B.

The Raw, Bold Truth is a story of a tough outlaw biker who grows up in a tri-racial family in Tin Can City. Born in the early nineteen- fifties, he fights to win acceptance from his family as well as his peers, and finally, in his teen years, discovers a belonging with a gang of bikers who don’t care what his color is or who his daddy was.  He casts his lot in with them, and lives a life of crime and violence, becoming a monster who goes to jail and stays in his concrete womb, locked into a jail cell with only his addiction and his conscience.

Finally, after many years in the prisons of the Correctional Service of Canada, he is sent to the Regional Psychiatric Center, Pacific Region where he spends several years in the Violent Offenders Unit, an in-prison therapeutic community.  He marries a previous girlfriend, has a baby, and gets a conditional parole, then sets out hopefully to live a positive, sober lifestyle.  Unprepared for the stresses of freedom and marriage, John returns to drinking and goes back to jail while the courts determine what to do with this Black /Irish/ Mohawk recidivist.  He begins again with baby steps to recovery, and while in a CSC penitentiary, he meets a counselor who helps him get back on track.  They meet again later, after his counselor has left the system, and find that their mutual involvement in a twelve-step program of recovery provides a strong basis for friendship and ultimately, marriage.

As they build a life together, John finds that his skills as a motivational speaker and social reform activist lead him into a career as a Life Skills Coach.  Suddenly, he is in demand across the country.  Joan becomes a college instructor, and, collaterally, they form the Human Resource Consulting Service, RECOM.  It provides programming in the very prison system from which they bath came.  In a search for his aboriginal roots, John falls in with a Cree family of healers, who, recognizing in him a truly good man, adopt him in the traditional custom.  Finally, he finds the home and love he never had growing up.

As their blended family grows and becomes the center of their hearts, their relationship matures as well.  Just when they think they have it all together, John learns that he is dying of a long-buried disease. They face that reality and prepare the children for life without Papa.  During an episode of critical illness, life support is required, and a powerful and addictive drug is used to keep him in an artificial coma.  When he recovers, John learns that his addiction is back with a vengeance.  The last few years of his life are spent in repeated attempts to stay sober, but they are devastatingly short lived.

John returns to the vicious underbelly of the streets, seeking drugs and finding hell.  As his wife hangs onto her own sobriety and sanity, they begin a manic dance of survival that spins out of control and tears them from their closest family and friends.  During a moment of clarity, John understands the need to get sober one more time before he dies, and he discovers help in the traditional healing of the sweat lodge.  He spends the last days of his life seeking absolution for his sins and the courage to face his last journey.

John’s last will and testament directs his wife to write his uncompleted life story, and, using his videos and journals, she narrates the journey in both of their voices.  She concludes the book by passing John’s message to readers that there is always one more recovery in an alcoholic’s life.  This book is important to readers of all ages, and all persuasions.  Alcoholics and recovering addicts, or those who are not, young readers and mature as well; all will find The Raw, Bold Truth inspirational and interesting.